Zaida Ben-Yusuf
Zaida Ben-Yusuf | |
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Born | Esther Zeghdda Ben Youseph Nathan 21 November 1869 London, England |
Died | 27 September 1933 Brooklyn, New York | (aged 63)
Known for | Photography |
Parent |
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Zaida Ben-Yusuf (21 November 1869 – 27 September 1933) was an American
In 1901,
Biography
Early life
Ben-Yusuf was born as Esther Zeghdda Ben Youseph Nathan in London, England, on 21 November 1869, the eldest daughter of a German mother, Anna Kind Ben-Youseph Nathan and an Algerian father, Mustapha Moussa Ben Youseph Nathan.[6] By 1881, her mother was living in Ramsgate and working as a governess[6] after separating from her husband and four daughters {Zaida (aged 11), Heidi (8), Leila (4) and Pearl (3)}.
Later in 1888, Anna Ben-Yusuf emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts where she had established a milliner's shop on Washington Street in Boston[6] by 1891.
In 1895, Ben-Yusuf followed in her mother's footsteps and emigrated to the United States where she worked as a milliner at 251 Fifth Avenue, New York.
Photography career
In 1896, Ben-Yusuf began to be known as a photographer. In April 1896, two of her pictures were reproduced in
In the spring of 1897, Ben-Yusuf opened her portrait photography studio at 124
In 1899, Ben-Yusuf met with F. Holland Day in Boston, and was photographed by him.[7] She relocated her studio to 578 Fifth Avenue, and exhibited in a number of exhibitions, including the second Philadelphia Photographic Salon.[7] She was also profiled in a number of publications, including an article on female photographers in The American Amateur Photographer, and a long piece in The Photographic Times in which Sadakichi Hartmann described her as an "interesting exponent of portrait photography".[7] In 1896 Ben-Yusuf was included in an exhibition organized by Linked Ring, Brotherhood of the London and continued to exhibit with them until 1902.[10]
In 1900, Ben-Yusuf corresponded with Johnston about an exhibition of American women photographers in Paris timed to coincide with the Universal Exposition. Ben-Yusuf had five portraits in the show, which traveled to Saint Petersburg, Moscow, and Washington, D.C.[7] She was also exhibited in Holland Day's exhibition, The New School of American Photography, for the Royal Photographic Society in London, and had four photographs selected by Alfred Stieglitz for the Glasgow International Exhibition of 1901, Scotland.[3][7]
In 1901, Ben-Yusuf wrote an article, "Celebrities Under the Camera", for the
Ben-Yusuf was listed as a member of the first American Photographic Salon when it opened in December 1904, although her participation in exhibitions was beginning to drop off. In 1906, she showed one portrait in the third annual exhibition of photographs at Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts, the last known exhibition of her work in her lifetime.[3]
Travels to Japan
In 1903, Ben-Yusuf traveled to Japan, where she toured
In 1906, she published three photographs from a visit to
On 15 September, following the outbreak of World War I and the German invasion of France, Ben-Yusuf returned to New York from Paris, where she had been living at the time.[11] She applied for naturalization in 1919, describing herself as a photographer, and taking ten years off her age.[11] She continued to travel, visiting Cuba in 1920 and Jamaica in 1921.[11]
Later life
Ben-Yusuf took a post with the Reed Fashion Service in New York City in 1924, and lectured at local
By 1930, census records showed that Ben-Yusuf had married a textile designer, Frederick J. Norris. She died three years later on 27 September in the Methodist Episcopal Hospital in Brooklyn.[11]
Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery
Ben-Yusuf's work was the subject of an exhibition, Zaida Ben-Yusuf: New York Portrait Photographer at the
Goodyear suggested that
Another reason for Ben-Yusuf's obscurity was that she had not bequeathed a significant archive of her work to a single institution, making it difficult to pull together enough examples to give her career the appropriate historical assessment.[5] Goodyear's exhibition at the Smithsonian acted as a showcase for Ben-Yusuf's work, re-establishing her as a key figure in fine art photographic history.[5]
References
- ^ Crompton, Sarah (6 May 2016). "She takes a good picture: six forgotten female pioneers of photography". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
- ^ Ben-Yusuf, Zaida (15 August 1901). "The foremost women photographers in America, sixth article: Zaida Ben-Yûsuf". www.loc.gov.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Chronology of Zaida Ben-Yusuf, 1901–1906 on the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery website, accessed 30 March 2009. "Chronology of Zaida Ben-Yusuf, 1898–1900", 31 October 2018
- ^ "Zaida Ben-Yusuf: New York Portrait Photographer". npg.si.edu. Archived from the original on 3 February 2014.
- ^ a b c d e f g Monsen, Lauren. "New Exhibition Resurrects Legacy of Groundbreaking Photographer: Ben-Yusuf produced memorable portraits that captured an era". America.gov. Archived from the original on 24 July 2010. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Chronology of Zaida Ben-Yusuf, 1869–1898 on the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery website, accessed 30 March 2009 Archived 21 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Chronology of Zaida Ben-Yusuf, 1898–1900 on the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery website, accessed 30 March 2009 Archived 2 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Volume XXX, Number 5: Harper's bazaar - Cornell University Library Digital Collections". digital.library.cornell.edu.
- ^ "The 1898 American Institute Exhibition of Photographs". The American Amateur Photographer: 457. 1898.
She won a third bronze prize medal (class i. Portraits) on a full length portrait of Miss Virginia Earle
- ^ Schwendener, Martha. "Ben-Yusuf, Zaida." Grove Art Online. 11 Feb. 2013; Accessed 26 Mar. 2020. https://www-oxfordartonline-com.ezproxy.ithaca.edu/groveart/view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7002229182.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Chronology of Zaida Ben-Yusuf, 1907–1933 on the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery website, accessed 30 March 2009 Archived 2 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine
Further reading
- Goodyear, Frank H.; Wiley, Elizabeth O.; and Boone, Jobyl A.; Zaida Ben-Yusuf: New York portrait photographer (London, New York: Merrell; Washington: In association with National Portrait Gallery, 2008). ISBN 978-1-85894-439-5.